41 organizations join the BIS project Agora to promote unified registration applications

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) project Agora has moved into the design phase with 41 private financial firms on board. Launched in April by the BIS and seven central banks, the project is looking at how to integrate commercial bank deposits into wholesale central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on a single platform.

Regulated private sector participants include Visa and Mastercard, SWIFT, Switzerland's Six Digital Exchange, Japan's Monex Group financial services firm, clearing firms and several large banks. The Institute of International Finance, a financial services trade group, was selected to recruit private participants who responded to a call for participation in May.

Aim to achieve more efficient transactions

Project Agora is now the largest BIS project in terms of participants. Private sector members join the Bank of France (representing the Eurosystem), the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Korea, the Bank of Mexico, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Project Agora addresses the “structural inefficiencies” in the current global payments system by applying the concept of a unified ledger developed by BIS. It focuses specifically on customer verification and anti-money laundering, as these measures are often performed frequently by intermediaries in transactions. BIS said in a statement:

“The project […] It examines how tokenized commercial bank deposits can be combined with tax-free bulk central bank funds in a public-private program core financial platform.

Related: Banque de France, Hong Kong Monetary Authority CBDC, explore tokenization

Showing the combined record

BIS head Agustin Carstens stated that BIS considered the consolidated balance sheet in 2015. In their 2023 presentation, a unified ledger will have a programmable and structured open architecture. CBCCs and escrows reside in distributed ledger units, with smart contracts facilitating their interaction. Multiple integrated ledgers can interact with each other.

Project participants identified legal and regulatory issues and gaps between tokenization and CDC among the seven regions represented. Project Agora is expected to run until the end of 2025, when a final report will be issued.

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